The Iron Crown Event: Just a predatory monetisation tactic?

Please note: This post isn't meant to dissuade players from making their own choices. I am merely providing my opinion through criticising the developers' use of shady business tactics to swindle players out of their money.

I pose to you a question...

Who is the biggest enemy players must face in Apex Legends?

The biggest enemy players have to face in Apex Legends is not the better skilled players who always join in as a well co-ordinated team.

It's not that one guy who gets all the good loot as soon as they hit the ground at the start of the match after landing right in front of you when you only get left a Mozambique and a dozen level one sniper stocks.

It's not that one player with 10,000+ kills in possession of a backpack and guns full of level 4 items.

It's not even the leviathans that step on you.

No it's none of them.

The biggest enemy every single player has to deal with is EA.

This is clearly evident from what can be seen in this latest Iron Crown update.

EA & Respawn are blatantly presenting the community of Apex Legends, there entire player base, with despicable predatory monetisation tactics.

For those who aren't aware of the pricing for the new event items, allow me to briefly explain it here;

Crowns (yet another in-game currency) are earned through playing the event, but only a total of 120 Crowns can be earned though said gameplay.

All other crowns can only be earned through event specific apex packs.

Each event apex pack costs an average of $7 with each pack giving only a 50% chance at providing an event skin or item.

In total any player will have to spend around $150-160 in order to get enough event packs to obtain every event item available during the event.

Then and only then are you given the "opportunity" to purchase... yes that's right, PURCHASE, as in spend even more money on, a preview for Bloodhound's heirloom set.

Also bare in mind the fact this this additional purchasable content is merely just a preview. A PREVIEW!

It is not the entirety of Bloodhound's heirloom set. Just a single melee skin... FOR $35!

So you would still have to open at least 500 loot boxes in order to be guaranteed the set.

What's surprising is how EA is allowed to get away with what essentially amounts to encourage people to participate in acts that are tantamount gambling.

Sure EA's representatives, lawyers and defence team in the ESA will tell you no, it's not gambling. However, that doesn't change the fact that this form of monetisation scheme is malicious on the most fundamental of levels.

The worst people affected by this can essentially boil down to tree types of individual. The young, the malleable and you.

The young, mostly children and the early teen demographic, are persuaded into spending money on things like skins for what $20 each, with their common to legendary tier system to make it seem like it's the only way to experience some form of success in games like Apex Legends.

And the malleable? Well they're the ones EA takes advantage of through their susceptibility to gambling or those who may have addiction problems and are the clearly the most exploitable victims of this system.

Then there's you. The average generic consumer who must specifically fork out on your hard earned money just to obtain something you think looks nice in a game you enjoy to spend time on.

Fun Fact EA: Not everyone can afford to spend $200 on cosmetic dlc!

If you want to see a larger profit overall, then things have to be better affordable to your consumers. Otherwise the only people you truly sell a product to are the rich and the vulnerable with compulsive personalities.

EA would see a much higher growth rate in their profits if they actually considered pricing their products to anything that can be considered even remotely fair.

So we as a community need to call this for what it is. Consumer exploitation through the use of predatory monetisation tactics. Heck, all you have to do is take one look at the Apex Legends subreddit right now to find that the majority of the community aren't talking about the bug fixes and core gameplay improvements. No, they're discussing their disgust at the developers' attempt to make money off of them because they enjoy the game.

I, like many others who share these thoughts on the matter, would advise players to not encourage this dreadful display of greed by EA and Respawn.

Ridiculous prices

Solo mode is fantastic first off. Although, don’t be fooled by the special event packs all they do is stuff the “iron crowns” into the packs and say you have a 50% chance of getting a legendary but that’s not true. I bought 3 packs to see if my luck would hold and after two packs nothing. The third pack was the same way. The ridiculous price gouging to even come close to getting these incredible skins really shows the classic EA greed. Don’t make my same mistake.

Re: The Iron Crown Event: Just a predatory monetisation tactic?

@NotReallyNub Change would be ideal... but whenever I see content about people hoping EA will actually make said changes, all I imagine in my head is EA hiring a Dickensian actor to play Ebenezer Scrooge and say "Bah, humbug" on every comment and post made regarding the matter.

Re: The Iron Crown Event: Just a predatory monetisation tactic?

@AcessorieSS It's okay that you didn't read my post. I'm honestly just glad this situation is further encouraging people to voice their concern with how this company is conducting their business.I don't expect to start a revolution of any kind, but the fact more and more people are talking about it, like on reddit, I'd say we're witnessing the beginning of the end for EA.

You're right to feel bad for the studio though. Imagine being one of the artists hired to create the admittedly great Iron Crown skins, only for your work to then be locked behind a paywall so high even President Trump would be envious. It must suck for those who want to deliver a dependable end product.But no, Ea is just like..."It's not restricted content, it's selective viewing."